<p>The government is obviously already making rules about this because they arrested her. </p>
<p>I think it was a bad parenting decision. I think arresting her and using handcuffs was a horrendous, harm-causing over-reaction.</p>
<p>I also think that the idea that parents shouldn’t let kids play outside un-watched is a huge over-reaction. Stranger abduction is very, very rare.</p>
<p>And the same people who fret about that, put their kids into cars every day–when thousands of kids die in car accidents every year–tragically, much more likely to happen than the microscopically small chance of abduction.</p>
<p>The difference between letting your kid play outside unsupervised, or stand at the bus stop unsupervised, is that you are not asking other people to keep an eye on your child. </p>
<p>Toy stores are not public playgrounds. Whether it’s child endangerment may be open to debate, but the fact remains that the mother sent the kid in “to play”, not to shop. That’s not what stores are for. And how long should the store employees have waited before thinking that the child had been abandoned, and taken responsibility for the child? Mom may have known that she was coming back, but the clerks certainly didn’t. If the kid had been 12, they could have told him to leave. But they couldn’t do that to a 7 year old. Mom just wanted free babysitting, and that’s also not what stores are for.</p>
<p>On of our local malls has a kiddie play area at the food court, but they make it explicit that parents are required to be there at all times. </p>
<p>"Parents get upset at this mom but many of them put their kids in harms way on a daily basis in front of their home?s. </p>
<p>I would never have left my kid at that age alone in a mall store but are you really equating that to allowing your 7 yr. old to play outside their house at 7 with out watching them every second? When my kid was that age, he played outside all the time with other kids on our street. They ran around from house to house, yard to yard, etc. </p>
<p>Chedva–I totally agree about it being an inexcusable imposition on the store employees.</p>
<p>It’s not okay, but it’s also no different from leaving him in the library or the park or the bus stop or letting him walk to school alone. Five hours in a park is worse but in both cases child neglect is a stretch imho. And, If this is against the law people need to know it, first. They clearly don’t. </p>
<p><a href=“Home Alone Rules by State - iMOM”>https://imom.com/home-alone-rules-state/</a></p>
<p>Many states have no rules on leaving kids alone at home. Some states do. They vary widely.</p>
<p>In Georgia you can leave your 8 year old home alone. In Illinois you can’t leave your child home alone until he is 14.</p>
<p>At what age can you leave a child unattended outside the home? Who knows?</p>
<p>If they are going to arrest people you would think they could come up with an age.</p>
<p>When my kids were in middle school, someone asked the Police Liaison officer at the school at what age parents could drop their young teens off at a mall with their friends. He replied that if we knew what happened at malls, we wouldn’t let a child go to a mall unattended until they could drive themselves there. Seven is definitely too young.</p>
<p>Of course, 7 is too young to drop a kid off at the mall. But, that’s not what happened, either. This is exactly what occured in the Adam Walsh case and I don’t remember anyone even remotely suggesting that the parents had been neglectful. I agree that if parents are going to be arrested then it needs to be clearly against the law. Child neglect is too broad and could be anything.</p>
<p>Flossy–it’s nice to be in agreement with you! :)</p>
<p>Even once they can drive, teens usually go to the mall in groups and stay together. I don’t recall going to the mall alone until I was an adult shopping for myself. The fun of going to the mall as a teen is going with friends. I can’t imagine leaving a child of 7 alone at the mall- for the sake of the child and for me. I’d be a wreck. </p>
<p>Going to some faceless stats:</p>
<p>"</p>
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<br>
<p>Recently: <a href=“Washington teenager arrested in death of 6-year-old Jenise Wright - oregonlive.com”>Washington teenager arrested in death of 6-year-old Jenise Wright - oregonlive.com;
<p>Leaving a 7 year old alone in a mall that large offers the opportunity to set many many possible random events into motion. Maybe its a way to select for more robust 7 year olds once the weaker ones have been eliminated?</p>
<p>What you left out: Abduction by strangers :facts state 100 to 130 kids. Some of these are at an age where most parents would let them go out alone.</p>
<p>Even 1 is too many . Kids and parents need to know the facts, what to be aware of, and what to do.</p>
<p>I still think there should be federal laws on exact ages just for starters.</p>
<p>Was she photographed and fingerprinted? Is that the standard procedure now?</p>
<p>In my opinion, it was child endangerment and she deserved to be arrested. I would sentence her to probation and childcare classes rather than jail, but she put that child at risk. </p>
<p>I lived in a small town when my children were young and the often played outside by themselves (three year old walked across back yards to a friend’s home three houses down). But a shopping mall is a good place for child abusers or impulsive troubled teens to hang out. If the child had been carried or dragged out of the toy store screaming, most adults would have assumed he or she was having a tantrum when the parent said “no” to a toy purchase.</p>
<p>The child was abandoned. Mom was not in the same store and had not checked on the child in over an hour. The child (presumably) had no means of locating or contacting his mother (or any other person actually responsible for them). The store employees were not informed she was leaving nor assumed any responsibility for the child.</p>
<p>This is nothing like a child alone at home. A child at home has a modicum of protection from outside influences and has access to phones and neighbors, food and water, bathroom facilities, etc. Seven is still young to be alone, but in that familiar and controlled environment, it is not unreasonable for a very short period of time. </p>
<p>As to comparisons with a child playing outside, that depends entirely on the circumstances - there are definitely places and times where letting a child of a particular age outside unsupervised would be endangerment, and others where it would not.</p>
<p>Should she have been arrested? I think that first depends on state law - is it legal (and prudent) to give a child back to a woman being charged with child endangerment, and is this kind of crime one that legally requires an arrest? I think it second depends on her actions after she was located - most states give the police wide latitude in determining who can be charged and released and who must be arrested and cuffed, and if she was “problematic” then they may have seen her detention as necessary to maintain the peace. </p>
<p>Bear in mind that in NY, endangering the welfare of a child carries a sentence between 15 days and 1 year in prison.</p>
<p>Ny state actually does not have laws regulating what age children can be left alone, so I am surprised she was actually arrested rather than opening up a CPS file. How did they know how long she was actually gone?
In our state the reccomendation is 10, but in Kansas its 6 & Maryland its 8.
<a href=“Latchkey Kids Legal Age Limits Listed By State”>http://www.latchkey-kids.com/latchkey-kids-age-limits.htm</a>
<a href=“https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/homealone.pdf#page=5&view=Resources,%20Including%20State-Specific%20Links”>https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/homealone.pdf#page=5&view=Resources,%20Including%20State-Specific%20Links</a></p>
<p>Do 7 year olds really believe in Santa? My youngest was five when she figured it out and she always was suspicious.
I did not take her on errands though unless I was forced to.</p>
<p>Interesting EK4. </p>
<p>Leaving a kid alone an hour in a toy store seems like an unfair imposition on the store staff. They should charge mom for babysitting. </p>
<p>Is it criminal endangerment? Doesn’t strike me that way. Stupid and worth giving mom a dressing down and opening a CPS file. She should take some parenting classes. </p>
<p>I can remember being around seven yo when allowed to go look at toys on my own. Parents would be in same store, maybe a different section, like housewares. I would have loved an hour, but never got one. I didn’t leave my kids alone in the toy store, but would have left them on a different aisle than me at a Target type store at age seven. Not for long, though, maybe ten minutes. Some of that is a know your kids situation: will they stay where you put them? will they not open boxes or otherwise misbehave? I was never afraid of abductions.</p>
<p>@Lizardly </p>
<p>I have heard many parents of abducted children say "I never thought it could happen to me/my child. </p>